Asia Cafe in Chollas Creek, San Diego, California

Asia Café at the northeast corner of Market Street at 47th Avenue (just a long block west of Euclid Avenue Trolley Station) east of downtown San Diego has got to be the County's tastiest best kept gastronomic secret. The whole rather drab looking corner doesn't invite visitation all by itself, I must admit. The L row of one storey white and blue shack, as I call it, houses Laotian grocery on the north end and a Laotian import store on the south end. In the middle, right at the L joint is little Asia Café, all of its one mid-size non-air-conditioned dining room with enough space to accommodate a party of 30 or so.

I must confess to being a lot more familiar with Thai food than I do Laotian or Vietnamese stuff, though the menu here is really similar to what you'd find at Thai restaurants that specialize in food from the Isaan (northeast) region. Most of the entrees can be had for less than $6.50! With their generous portion size and fantastically authentic cooking, I would pay %50 more per dish if they would come and open a branch closer to where I live!

The $5.00 chicken satay appetizer would provide you with enough protein to last a whole month. They give you 3 huge skewers of the thing per serving (a meal in itself) along with peanut sauce. The chicken is a bit dry for me, but the sweetness of the peanut sauce more than makes up for that. The $5.00 Crying Tiger here is actually what you'd see in a Thai restaurant as an all-beef version of 'larb', grounded beef salad mixed in lemon juice, scallion, lemon grass, served with some (but not much) very fresh vegetables. If you are really looking for what the Thai restaurants would sell as 'Crying Tiger', though, you'd go for the Seen-Nam-Toke (slices of grilled beef with lime juice-based sauce). As with the satay, the grilled beef here is quite on the dry side, but still very tasty with the sauce.... And absolutely has to be eaten with their sticky rice (the best steamed sticky rice in town. Period.).

If you are familiar with the dishes the Laotians have in common with the Thais from your previous experiences at Thai restaurants here in the USA, I should warn you that Asia Café doesn't Americanize its food. I don't know just how authentic the taste is to what you get in Laos, but you get to taste all the ingredients of your dishes here rather than just the usual sweet and/or sour!

The thing that really keep me going back to this place every week, though, are their Pho noodle soups with all sorts of beef cuts. All these lovely noodles can be had for $5 or less... And if you order to go, they'll even separate the noodle from the soup (and the beef cuts) and the vegetables (fresh water sprouts, chopped green onions, and some really nasty looking Loatian chili that I have never been brave enough to add to my Pho). I also can't get enough of the Laotian iced tea with milk and the Lao O-Lieng (iced black coffee) drinks. They both go for $1.50 and taste at least as good as the $2.50 (or more) Thai iced coffee or tea you can get at the Thai restaurants in downtown.

Service here is very friendly, though waiting time for food can be rather long. If you know the name of the dishes you want, you might do better to call ahead to order before coming in (unless you're bent on the Pho noodle, since those don't take long to cook). The hours here is also rather short (10:30AM-6:30PM), but you only have to look at the neighborhood to understand why they wouldn't want to hang around here after dark...

There is plenty of parking. There are also bus stops on both Market St and 47th Avenue (#5, 13)... and two trolley stops (Orange Line) just a short walk away (Euclid Station is a block east on Market, and 47th Avenue stop is 2 blocks south on 47th).

If you are in San Diego city area and feel like exploring some really authentic tasting Laotian food where you can gorge up on a whole lot of flavorful and lean meat with rice and/or noodle for $8, Asia Café at the northeast corner of Market and 47th is your promised land. I wish I had discovered this place sooner myself!

Asia Café:4710 Market St (at 47th Ave), San Diego, CA 92102 Tel (619) 527-1917.
Hours: Wed-Mon: 10:30AM-6:30PM Closed on Tuesdays